Philippines VP Robredo facing impeachment complaint

Manila, Philippines – A legal counselor for late dictator Ferdinand Marcos filed an arraignment complaint against Philippine VP Leni Robredo for her strong criticism of the administration’s bloody war on drugs.

Philippines Vice President – Leni Robredo

The complaint for violation of the constitution and betrayal of public trust was sent by Oliver Lozano to the office of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, a staunch ally of President Rodrigo Duterte. Alvarez had for a few days been considering whether to file a complaint himself.

“She is the termite of the government,” Lozano said in a letter seeking endorsement for his six-page complaint.

Robredo, who is not a member from Duterte’s party and was elected in a different contest, may have landed herself in a bad position after issuing a strong reproach of the popular President’s war on drugs in a video sent to the Unified Nations.

Alvarez said that was “irresponsible”. “This is the first time a high government official has sent a video clip maligning our country,” he said in a radio interview.

Robredo’s legal counselor, Barry Gutierrez, was sure she had done no wrong. “Truth-telling can never be an impeachable offence,” he told reporters.

The complaint comes in the midst of dispute amongst Duterte and his followers and the opposition Liberal Party and its allies, loosely along political lines going back to the time of late President Ferdinand Marcos, who was ousted by a “People Power” uprising in 1986.

It was filed four days after lower House representative Gary Alejano filed an impeachment complaint against Duterte, blaming him for offenses extending from conflict of interest and assets concealment to drugs-related extrajudicial killings.